What's On Sunday

By KATHRYN SHATTUCK

Published: July 3, 2011

9 P.M. (13, 49) POIROT XI: HALLOWE'EN PARTY David Suchet, below, continues his stint as the dapper Belgian supersleuth Hercule Poirot in the last of three new mysteries based on the novels by Agatha Christie and presented by ''Masterpiece Mystery!'' In this installment a universally disliked girl, Joyce Reynolds (Macy Nyman), boasts at a Halloween party of having seen a murder -- and ends up dead in an apple-bobbing mishap. Another guest, the mystery writer Ariadne Oliver (Zo?anamaker), summons her old friend Poirot to the scene, where, with the help of the spiteful village crone, Mrs. Goodbody (Paola Dionisotti), he must figure out how a long-ago stabbing, a Russian au pair (Vera Filatova) and a forgery are connected before another corpse surfaces.

9 A.M. (CNN) STATE OF THE UNION WITH CANDY CROWLEY Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, will discuss Afghanistan and President Obama's withdrawal plan.

10 A.M. (Fox) FOX NEWS SUNDAY Shannon Bream, filling in for Chris Wallace, interviews Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, about raising the debt ceiling and Congress's forgoing the holiday recess. She will also speak with Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, about the president's withdrawal plan in Afghanistan.

10:30 A.M. (CBS) FACE THE NATION The topic: What's wrong with Washington? The guests include Gov. John Kasich of Ohio; Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts; and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

6 P.M. (FX) BABY MAMA (2008) Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) is a 37-year-old career woman who learns that she's infertile and decides to have a baby with a surrogate, the decidedly free-spirited Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler). Reviewing this comedy in The New York Times, Manohla Dargis wrote that ''much like the prickly, talented Ms. Fey,'' the film ''pulls you in with a provocative and, at least in current American movies, unusual mix of female intelligence, awkwardness and chilled-to-the-bone mean.''

7 P.M. (NBC) DATELINE NBC Matt Lauer interviews Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, who was taken hostage by pirates off the coast of Somalia in April 2009 and rescued by Navy Seals.

8 P.M. (TCM) ESSENTIALS JR. Bill Hader introduces ''King Kong'' (1933), the classic fantasy about a giant prehistoric ape, known as the eighth Wonder of the World, who wreaks havoc on New York while falling hard for an actress (Fay Wray), and tells why it's mandatory viewing for the younger set. ''I'm King Kong!: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper'' (2005), which explores how the African journeys of the filmmakers Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack inspired the men to conceive of ''King Kong,'' precedes the movie at 7. ''Mighty Joe Young'' (1949), Schoedsack's adventure about a massive ape raised by an orphan (Terry Moore) and the showmen who try to exploit it, comes later at 10.

8 P.M. (13, 49) THE GORILLA KING Titus was only 2 days old when he was named by Kelly Stewart, a young researcher with the primatologist Dian Fossey and a daughter of the actor James Stewart. This ''Nature'' special chronicles 33 years in Titus's life -- from birth to 4-year-old orphan to ruler of the silverback community in Rwanda, whose reign had come under challenge, even from his own son. Titus died at 35 in Sept. 2009.

8 P.M. (Fox Movie Channel) THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS (1989) The brothers Beau and Jeff Bridges play Frank and Jack Baker, a two-piano lounge act proud of never having held a day job despite an awful stage wardrobe, an even worse repertory and rock-bottom morale. Then a club owner offers to pay off the Bakers' contract if they will agree not to play. Michelle Pfeiffer is Susie Diamond, the hard-boiled bombshell who helps the guys reinvent themselves as a three-person act. Writing in The New York Times, Janet Maslin called this film from the director Steve Kloves a ''slow, teasing, rapturously moody romance.''

9 P.M. (TNT) LEVERAGE When their mark is murdered during a sting, the Robin Hoods must find the killer before their leader, Nate (Timothy Hutton), is sentenced for the crime.

10 P.M. (HBO) TREME The season wraps (Wendell Pierce, far left, with Jaron Williams) as a jazz festival brings a welcome respite from the strife in post-Katrina New Orleans.

10 P.M. (NBC) THE MARRIAGE REF Tracy Morgan, Regis Philbin and Susie Essman offer advice to sparring couples, including a wife who hates the reproduction of a 19th-century tavern her husband has built in their home; a husband who wants his wife to dress more sexily; and another who can't stand his spouse's obsession with fake ponytails. At the end of the episode the studio audience will vote one person ''The Rightest of the Right.'' KATHRYN SHATTUCK